Prompted by turmoil in the Jordan-Elbridge school district, state senator introduces bill to allow recalls of elected officials

View full sizeStephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardMaureen Doyle spoke at the monthly Board of Education meeting held Wednesday night February 16, 2011. Doyle spoke on behalf of Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility. Doyle and her group were unhappy with money spent by the board on the management coup.

Syracuse, NY -- After months of turmoil surrounding the Jordan-Elbridge school board, a state senator has proposed a law allowing voters to recall elected officials throughout New York.

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, would put in place a lengthy, three-step process to oust nearly all level of elected officials — from village board members to the governor — for misconduct, incompetence or failure to perform the duties of the office.

Maureen Doyle, a critic of the Jordan-Elbridge school board, and David Zehner, the district’s suspended high school principal who also lives in the district, met with DeFrancisco about five or six weeks ago and urged him to introduce a recall bill.“The whole situation in Jordan-Elbridge is a wake-up call for the whole state,” said Doyle, who lives in the district. “You have these elected officials on the board, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

That’s what she and others discovered this school year as they watched their school district drown in accusations that fostered misgivings about how the district was run. It started last fall when Zehner was suspended with pay for reasons that have not been made public. Just last month, the interim superintendent, Lawrence Zacher, was fired after allegations he’d helped Paula VanMinos — another administrator — get a new contract that guaranteed her $308,000 if she didn’t receive tenure. The firing of Zacher and suspension of VanMinos came a day after The Post-Standard reported that VanMinos had arrived many times at Zacher’s Skaneateles apartment in the evening and left the next morning.

In between, the school board shut down public comment at meetings and hired off-duty sheriff’s deputies to help maintain control. Last month, voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposed school district budget and moved to reduce the board size from nine to seven.

Nationwide, 19 states permit voter-based recalls of state elected officials, according to DeFrancisco’s proposed legislation. All told, 29 states allow recall of local elected officials. Currently, New Yorkers must wait until scheduled elections before ousting their elected officials.

• First, voters would have to apply to the state Board of Elections, paying a $50 to $100 refundable fee. The application would include a summary of 200 words or less to explain the reason for the recall. Supporters would collect enough signatures to match at least 10 percent of the votes cast in the last election for that office. The Board of Elections would judge the veracity of the signatures, not whether the actions of the official warranted a recall.

• Then voters would have to collect more signatures, enough to match at least 25 percent of votes cast to prompt the actual recall election.

• Finally, the voters of the district would go to the polls to decide whether to remove the official.

Under DeFrancisco’s plan, voters could not recall an official at the beginning and ending of a term. Repeated recall attempts involving the same elected official would not be allowed. “We’re not talking about 10 people storming with a pitchfork,” said Zehner.

But for a district of J-E’s size, it wouldn’t take thousands, either. Rather, it would take 397 signatures for the application and another 993 signatures on recall petitions to prompt a special election. That’s based on the 3,973 votes cast May 17 for J-E school board candidates.

DeFrancisco is not the only Albany lawmaker proposing recalls. Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, and Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, have a bill that would allow voters more power to kick out officials and repeal laws. “It’s a vehicle to restore confidence,” Kolb said.

Their version would require fewer signatures to prompt a special election, but it would include elected judges — some who serve a decade or longer — in the potential group of officials at risk of recall. Kolb said Thursday he thought it unlikely the Legislature would take up the recall issue before the current session ends on June 20.